Updated: NCC chooses Tunney's Pasture as best site for new Civic hospital

The National Capital Commission surprised many people and overjoyed others Thursday by recommending Tunney’s Pasture become the site of the new Civic hospital.

The recommendation of the NCC’s board — which passed despite some key voices of dissent — now goes to Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly for approval. If approved by Joly, it’s up to the hospital to decide whether to proceed.

In the end, it was access to public transit — the site is adjacent to the LRT line — and the fact that it would not require destroying a heritage site or agricultural land, that helped to sway the NCC’s decision. The 50 acre site, on the western edge of the massive Tunney’s Pasture government complex, an NCC official noted, is already a sea of parking.

It moves Ottawa a step closer to having a $2 billion super hospital to replace the aging Civic. There are still many questions to be answered and hurdles to overcome before the new hospital is a reality — 15 or 20 years from now, at the earliest.

The decision was greeted with relief by groups who have rallied to protect the Central Experimental Farm from development. But the controversy that has marked selection of a new hospital site for years is not exactly laid to rest.

The Ottawa Hospital — which has long favoured building across the street from its existing Civic site on the Central Experimental Farm — has, in the past, raised concerns about the suitability of Tunney’s Pasture because of traffic delays on Parkdale Avenue, which could impede emergency vehicles.

NCC chief executive Mark Kristmanson agreed Tunney’s Pasture presents a “slight impediment” for people trying to get to it from the south, but said “it will be manageable in the long term.” In the 15 to 20 years before the hospital opens, he added, there will be time for changes to urban transportation. “Over time traffic planners will need to propose solutions to strengthen connections.”

Kristmanson also said the NCC did not receive any traffic studies before making their decision.

“Access from the Queensway to the north end of the ward is challenging, especially to and from the Parkdale ramps,” he said in a statement.

Leiper said the selection “will likely be hotly debated in the ward and around the city.” He anticipated concerns about traffic and parking from residents.

The hospital, in past reviews of potential sites, has also been concerned about the costs associated with building on Tunney’s Pasture. The portion of the site approved Thursday contains five buildings, some of which would likely have to be demolished. It remains unclear who would pay the cost of demolishing buildings declared surplus by the federal government on the land.

In a brief statement issued Thursday, the hospital noted Tunney’s Pasture “was not among the top-ranked sites in our 2008 or 2016 reports.”

The hospital added that, in the past, it understood the federal government had “a vision and plans for the Tunney’s Pasture development that did not include a hospital. We understand today that there have been recent changes to the vision for Tunney’s Pasture that could enable a hospital to be located there.”

The hospital said it will review the NCC report and work with federal, provincial and municipal governments “to plan a way forward.”

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute, currently adjacent to the Civic, will accompany the hospital wherever it moves.

Kristmanson said he spoke with hospital chief executive Dr. Jack Kitts earlier this week about the recommendation and he was “on the whole quite positive about the site.”

Four Ottawa members of the NCC board of directors abstained or voted against the recommendation, including Kay Stanley, who was on the six-person selection committee, and formerly on The Ottawa Hospital board of directors. Bob Plamondon and Brian Coburn voted against it. Michael Poliwoda, who is the vice-president of philanthrophy at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, also abstained as did a member from Montreal, Denys Rivard. Stanley favoured building across the street from the existing hospital on the farm. Having a new hospital there would mean the current site could be used for a long-term care facility connected to the hospital, she said.

Stanley also noted that, although Tunney’s will be on the LRT route, “when people need to go to emergency or to pre-admission, they don’t take public transit to the hospital.”

The recommendation lifts the threat of development that has hung over the farm for years since The Ottawa Hospital identified it as its preferred site for a new hospital.

Heritage advocates say they will ask Environment Minister Catherine McKenna to mandate better protection from development for the farm and other national historic sites.

“It is a sigh of relief, but the vultures are still circling over the farm,” said Leslie Maitland of Heritage Ottawa. “(Historic sites) shouldn’t be under the gun every time somebody wants a juicy piece of land.”

Serge Buy, CEO of the Agricultural Institute of Canada, and a critic of the previous process of selecting a site for the Civic hospital, said Thursday’s decision “helps confirm a commitment to science and agriculture.”

Thursday’s announcement comes two years after the former Conservative government agreed to allow a replacement for the aging Civic hospital to be built on the farm near Carling Avenue, an announcement that was made without public consultation.

The plan proved controversial, with groups mobilizing to protect the farm, which is a designated National Historic Site. Scientists from around the world, including those who work with Agricultural Canada scientists on soil experiments at the farm, wrote to the Conservative government expressing alarm at plans to build on the historic agricultural research fields.

When the Liberals were elected last year, they vowed to revisit the issue with a more transparent process for selecting a site for the new hospital. Eventually, the National Capital Commission was tasked with reviewing a dozen sites that had already been considered by the hospital. As part of the process, public consultations were held and groups consulted.

Tunney’s is 121 acres of government buildings where 10,000 public servants go to work each day. Most of the buildings are reaching their best-before dates, which is why Public Services and Procurement Canada has a development strategy in the works for the land. The master plan calls for a transformation of the site to include offices as well as retail, residential and parks. The 25 year plan includes the addition of between 800 and 1,000 residential units and the doubling of federal employees to 20,000.

The west side of the site, where a hospital would go, has been declared surplus to government needs. Kristmanson suggested the hospital might be able to use some of the existing buildings.

Numerous Ontario communities are vying for provincial dollars to build new hospitals in what some have termed a race for hospital funding.

In addition to Tunney’s Pasture and three sites on the farm along Carling Avenue, the NCC looked at another site on farm land near Baseline and Merivale roads, one near Lincoln Fields, the Booth Street complex, two sites on West Hunt Club Road near Highway 416, one on Woodroffe near Hunt Club and the Merivale Road-Woodroffe Avenue corridor as well as the existing Ottawa Hospital Civic campus.

epayne@postmedia.com

Correction: Bob Plamondon and Brian Coburn, both on the NCC board of directors, voted against the NCC’s recommendation to make Tunney’s Pasture the new site of the Civic hospital. Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story said they abstained from voting.

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